The Improv Turns 60: Ramy Youssef, Whitney Cummings Honor Legendary Comedy Club Brand

The Improv turns 60 this year and, despite the spontaneity that the name might suggest, theres a methodical plan to grow the comedy organization.

In 1963, founder Budd Friedman opened the first location in New York Citys Hells Kitchen, envisioning the defunct Vietnamese restaurant with a brick wall as a gathering place for Broadway talent. Comedians soon gravitated to the spot as a place to try out new material and talent scouts followed. While the original location shuttered in the 1990s, the brand itself is stronger than ever, boasting 25 clubs in 20 cities, including the Hollywood Improv on Melrose Avenue.

Robert Hartmann, founder and senior partner of current management company Levity Live, first worked at the Improv in 1985, when he was hired as a bar back and doorperson for the Irvine location. Nowadays, he says, the organization is accelerating growth in areas such as cruise lines, touring shows and digital media.

We want Improv to be the leading brand for live comedy worldwide, he says.

But, of course, no brand can last without solid talent. Luckily, the Improv maintains a roster of established and loyal comedians. Hartmann recalls comics pitching in to help Friedman after a 1979 fire nearly destroyed the Hollywood location, noting that Jay Leno contributed his carpentry skills to help rebuild the roof.

We talk about the Improv as a monolith, but the Improv as a small club on Melrose is a very special place for comedians, says comedian Iliza Shlesinger, who has been a regular performer with the organization since the aughts and donated time to a fund-raising event for the Hollywood location during the COVID shutdown.

Shlesinger talks about the emotional support shes gotten from the Hollywood locations longtime employees such as assistant general manager J Chase and talent booker Reeta Piazza. Youre with these people all the time and they take care of you like family and that warmth shows, Shlesinger says. Some clubs you walk into, and its ice cold and you dont feel like you can even sit anywhere.

Whitney Cummings, another longtime regular performer, also spoke of the nurturing vibe of the Hollywood location, be it Piazza messaging her if she needs some chips and guacamole before she goes onstage to workshop new material or the way the bookers think about less polished performers. The Improv really thinks in terms of the next generation of comedians, not just the current generation, and how to give them stage time, Cummings says.

But its heavy roster also means that more established performers like her can break from conformity to find a place in a lineup geared toward audiences not familiar with her style or simply know that theyre always welcome back to retrain their material for a smaller audience after selling out venues.

When Ramy Youssef was rehearsing his 2019 special Feelings at the Hollywood location in the intimate second stage, known as the Lab, he was allowed to put the theater seating in the round, to match the look of the HBO program. I have a real affinity for that room, Youssef notes. Its a place I really like to go and try new jokes because Im like, Oh, if these work in the Lab, theyd work anywhere. For a comparison, he says, the main room at the Improv feels like a concert and the Lab literally feels like this intimate restaurant. Its such a small space and it sounds different, and you dont get, acoustically, the same pops.

Comic Taylor Tomlinson is loyal to the DC Improv, noting, that club booked me to headline pretty early on in my career and they have such great crowds. Maz Jobrani admits a preference for the Hollywood and Irvine clubs because I can sleep in my own bed at night. But Jobrani stresses that the company has set up a system that no matter which club youre at, youre going to be taken good care of.

Cummings, who was coming off a performance at the Brea Improv ahead of this interview, says, The biggest comedians know that youve got to go back to the gym; youve got to go back to smaller crowds so that you dont just end up sort of projecting and giving speeches.

If youre only performing comedy for your fans and big venues, youre going to kind of start to develop these bad habits, she continues. Youre going to do a bad impression of yourself, and clubs are really where we stay strong.

But its also essential for up-and-comers, says Erin von Schonfeldt, Levity Lives exec VP of programming, who started out in 1991 as a server at the Irvine Improv. For months, I drove around with my employee manual on my passenger side seat hoping anyone and everyone would see it, she remembers. In 1997, she transferred to booking. The scale of the Improv, especially for emerging talent, is invaluable in that we can book you in front of very different audiences across the country, she says.

In our road clubs, the batting order is MC, feature act and headliner, says von Schonfeldt. However, in Hollywood, with multiple artists appearing on any given night, creating the right talent line-ups is very nuanced.

You are striking a delicate balance of personalities, material, and pace, she continues. Essentially, you are producing a live event with different artists multiple times each week. Rarely are any two nights the same which is what makes it dynamic and exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

Levity receives daily reports from clubs about ticket sales, audience response to specific artists and which comedians have regional appeal versus national momentum. It is the equivalent of having 25 focus groups nationwide, delivering proprietary information nightly, says Stu Schreiberg, a partner in Levity and CEO of the comedy and lifestyle-focused TV production company Triage Entertainment.

A talent department actively searches for original voices on an international scale. Hartmann says Levity Lives club network introduced Trevor Noah to American audiences after he met him at the South African Comedy Festival in Cape Town and that the Improv showrooms helped French superstar Gad Elmaleh get established in the States.

But von Schonfeldt says theres no set science for knowing when someones ready for the main stage.

You just know, she says. We know when we see someone who is authentic, delivers an original point of view and has the confidence to take control of the showroom.

Levity identifies talented performers and then maps out ways to help them build a brand, assessing everything from their social media use and TV appearances to wardrobe.

What is most exciting about identifying talent is being able to look at what theyre currently doing and how you see their future in three years, five years and 10 years, says Judi Marmel, Levitys senior partner, whose ties to the Improv go back two decades.

Von Schonfeldt met her husband Karl when he was a doorman at the Irvine club; they had their wedding reception there. But even those without such a specific personal connection to the brand speak of their dedication to a job that has long hours and commitments.

There are not many professions where you are constantly surrounded by laughter, where you can witness some truly unforgettable moments coming from the stage, where you feel that you are part of a legendary history, says Levity Live COO Cesar Blancarte.

Im proud of what we continue to build together, especially coming out of the pandemic where we attempted to serve up comedy on rooftops and parking lots, Blancarte says. Our teams approach every day with energy, focus and a lot of humor, though they are just not as funny as those on all stages.